Friday, August 1, 2008

i have been thinking about compact fluorescent bulbs lately. the first news item about cfl's that caught my attention was on morning joe on msnbc. the story was about the capitol building going green or "carbon neutral" , well half of it anyway. the house of representatives' chambers are powered by natural gas and the senate is still getting its energy from the coal plant just down the street. its odd, funny really, the idea that the capitol building is dived right down to its energy supply. anyway, morning joe was interviewing a female representative (her name eludes me)and she was talking about the "Green the Capitol" project and they got on the subject of compact fluorescents light bulbs. she then brought up the fact that the sale of the classic incandescent light bulbs will be outlawed in 2010 (very american, indeed). the representative had legislation in the works that would overturn the the fast approaching ban on incandescents. i remember thinking at the time, "thank god that someone has the sense and minerals to to stand up against this bullshit ban." how can they just outlaw incandescents because they use a little more energy than cfl's.

i'm not a full-fledged conservative. i hate that ridiculous, ayn rand, "the-free-market-will-take-care-of-it" ideology, but i do, generally, believe in limited government. the ban on trans fats and smoking in california and new york piss me off. now, i now the dangers of unnatural hydrogenated oils and i don't smoke, but i do believe in a persons right to choose. i also believe that health workers shouldn't be forced to preform an abortion if it offends their morals. i can't imagine if abortion did offend a health worker's morals they would be working at an abortion clinic and i don't know under what circumstances in general practice they might face such circumstances, but they shouldn't be legally obligated to do so unless the mother's life is at risk. birth control is another story.

my thoughts are convoluted. anyway. i should be able to choose an incandescent light bulb over a cfl, if i want. especially, considering the mercury content in cfl's. if you break a cfl, you have to call a professionals to clean up the mess. no one ever stops to consider the danger this may pose to children or the fact that there aren't hazardous material waste sites conveniently located across the nation, so most of that mercury will end up in the landfill or in the ally or on the kitchen floor, where children walk barefoot. not to mention a ton of people don't even know how dangerous cfl's are. its ridiculous! here is a link to a Washington Times article about cfl's. check it out.

there is a whole bunch of money to be made off of the green movement. there are going to a whole sleuth of companies and legislators doing the wrong thing for the wrong reasons and hiding behind the pretext of saving the earth. ethanol, for example. what a farce. even wind energy is an excuse for billionare, t. boone pickens, to get out of millions of dollars worth of taxes and trade in carbon credits. like stephen clobert said, "the market has spoken global warming is real."